JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy files nomination for Channapatna Assembly bypoll
Bengaluru (PTI): JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy on Friday filed his nomination for the November 13 Assembly by-polls from Channapatna, a seat vacated by his father and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy after being elected to Lok Sabha, amid a show of strength along with alliance partner BJP.
The actor-turned-politician and NDA nominee was accompanied by wife Revathi, father Kumaraswamy, and BJP leaders -- former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Shivamogga MP B Y Raghavendra.
Earlier, the 36-year-old along with family members including his grandfather -- JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda -- visited a temple here.
After offering prayers at Kengal Anjaneya Swamy temple at Channapatna in the neighbouring Ramanagara district later, he held a massive road show accompanied by Kumaraswamy, Leader of Opposition in Assembly R Ashoka (BJP), Sadananda Gowda, Raghavendra, Mysuru BJP MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, along with a host of BJP and JD(S) leaders, for which a large number of party workers and supporters had turned up.
Ahead of filing his papers, the JD(S) youth wing president said fielding him as the candidate was an "unexpected development" for him, but leaders and workers of BJP and JD(S) showed confidence in him and have chosen him.
"The leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the relationship that Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy have developed with the people of the region over the years and the work they have done here will bless me," Nikhil said.
Kumaraswamy said: "This is not Nikhil Kumaraswamy's election. The Congress that is trying to disturb things in the country...when Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister... BJP-JD(S) by winning all the three segments in Karnataka, will put an end to the Congress' politics of conspiracy."
If any development has happened in Channapatna it was during the tenure of BJP and JD(S) in power, the Union Minister said, as he hit out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar questioning as to what they have done for the constituency "other than making speeches."
Nikhil is pitted against Congress' C P Yogeeshwara, a five-time Channapatna MLA, former Minister and a political heavyweight in the constituency, who switched sides from the BJP on Monday.
Kumaraswamy had won the Channapatna seat in the 2023 Assembly elections polling 96,592 votes against Yogeeshwara (then in BJP), who got 80,677 votes.
Nikhil's mother Anitha Kumaraswamy, a former MLA, had unsuccessfully contested from the seat in 2013 when she lost to Yogeeshwara.
With Yogeeshwara joining Congress to contest the Channapatna bypoll, pressure was mounting on Kumaraswamy from party workers and leaders to field Nikhil.
It is said that Kumaraswamy was in a dilemma, as Nikhil was not keen on contesting but buckled under pressure from party workers. Nikhil had said he was in favour of the party fielding a local JD(S) worker or a leader as candidate.
This is the third electoral battle for Nikhil. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2023 Assembly from Ramanagara, which had propelled Deve Gowda to the post of Chief Minister, and was also represented by both his parents.
He had a disastrous electoral debut when he lost to BJP-backed independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 polls.
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Belagavi: Two children kidnapped, abductors nabbed with help of technical surveillance
Belagavi (Karnataka), Oct 25: Two children of a businessman were allegedly kidnapped from their residence in this district headquarters town, police said on Friday.
A CCTV footage of the incident showed two men entering the house and running away with them - a four-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, they said.
Both the children have been secured and handed over to their parents while the three men involved in the alleged kidnapping have been arrested, police said.
According to police, the incident took place on Thursday afternoon after the two kids had just returned from school and were playing inside the living room of the house. At the time, only their grandmother was at home.
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The third accused was waiting with a car a few metres away from the house. The two men pushed the children inside the vehicle and sped away.
The police managed to trace the route of the suspects with the help of CCTV footage and technical surveillance, and immediately alerted their counterparts in the neighbouring districts, a senior police official said.
"With the help of technical surveillance, the police team chased the vehicle in which the kidnapped children were taken away by the accused and intercepted the vehicle near Kohalli in Belagavi district at around 4.25 am on Friday," he said.
"Both the children have been secured safely. They did not have any injuries and the three accused who were in the vehicle were also arrested in connection with the incident," the official said.
During interrogation, one of the accused revealed that he had invested in the trading platform of the businessman and incurred heavy losses. When he asked the businessman over Rs one crore following this, he refused to pay him and, so, he decided to kidnap the children, he said.
#WATCH | Karnataka: Kidnapping of two children, aged 3 and 4 years, in Belagavi district was caught on CCTV.
— ANI (@ANI) October 25, 2024
Belagavi police launched a manhunt for two kidnappers who arrived in a car, entered a home with weapons, kidnapped two children and escaped in a car. The parents of the… pic.twitter.com/D36U4plaf3
